Messages - Madhu

I recently finished an undergraduate in Religious Studies. I am currently trying to secure a position in a Religious Studies PhD program. My focus is in South Asian religion, with a special interest in Tantric traditions.My long term goal is to strike a balance between teaching and researching in my field.

While, as mentioned, my current academic focus is in South Asian religion, I also hope to branch out at some point into the study of contemporary 'underground/fringe' cultures and their unique religious/occult perspectives. This will be my way of 'giving back' to the world which has given me so much throughout my youth and early adulthood (metal in particular). I hope that my work in this field will eventually produce material of interest to people with similar backgrounds.

Satanism has never been a unified religious movement. Historically, it has almost always manifested as some sort of highly personalized, idiosyncratic inversion or revision of the dominant religious order. However, a few modern patterns can be roughly identified:

- Gnostic Satanism, sometimes called Chaos Gnosticism: a radically dualistic worldview basically borrowed from classical Gnosticism. Instead of being a mere rebellious angel, Satan is regarded as the true deity that exists beyond the illusion of temporal reality. Transgression against all social norms and biological instincts is the only way to come into contact with this 'light bearer' and attain liberation. This is actually one of the few forms of Satanism which has a historical precedent beyond the modern era.

- LaVeyan Satanism: a dumb joke.

- Extremely literal 'theistic' Satanism: takes the Judeo-Christian worldview at face value but pays devotion to the Devil, for either out of religious feeling or for some kind of 'reward'.

- Occult Satanism: too varied to describe, ranging from intellectually sophisticated to rock stupid. But in a really broad sense, these are systems which treat Satan as a device or symbol for some kind of personal empowerment in a generic, modern "left hand path" sense.

- Non-Laveyan Metaphorical Satanism: also too varied to describe, and frequently overlapping with 'occult Satanism'... but many people over the last few centuries have used Satan as a symbol for parts of the human experience/spirit/mind that must be accepted, harnessed, and/or integrated.

...it is certainly out of place on such a magnificent edifice as the human body. No matter what design is inked on, it will remain inferior to what lies underneath. Something few appreciate because of its ordinariness to us.

Ink is roughly as out of place as scar tissue, tanning, wrinkles, or any of the other incidental things that may end up marking a body through its lifespan.

And there's nothing intrinsically magnificent, beautiful or superior about the design of the human body, any more than there is something intrinsically magnificent, beautiful or superior its byproducts, i.e, feces, sweat, urine. As another user pointed out, it's just as easy to view the body as a disgusting mess as it is to view it as a sublime work of engineering. Either viewpoint tells us much more about the mind of the viewer than it does the object beheld.

I don't think you understand this religion. Devotion in this tradition is different than what is found in popular Western religion. It is not "faith" in a conventional sense. When the boundaries between subject and object have been erased, and there is no distinction between devotee and deity, what does "faith" mean?

This is a space in which modern notions about the left and right hand paths are worthless.

After excessive and unhealthy eating, food seems like sort of a gross chore. It's normal to burn out when you're doing things incorrectly - and you identified exactly what it is that you've been doing wrong: using sex as some kind of emotional crutch after bad breakups.

Your lack of desire is pretty normal. Decreased obsession with sex is also probably a sign of maturity in males above the age of 25 or so. I'd advise you to relax and not overthink the issue. Continue to build a worthwhile life, and you'll eventually meet a female who may wish to share it with you. When this happens, I'm sure you'll find that your sexual chemistry responds appropriately.

And don't worry about Brahmacharya. A lot of Indian and Tibetan ideas about retaining semen have very little to do with purely physiological 'health', and actually relate to a very complicated set of 'magical' practices. It's not worth worrying about this unless you're going to 'go all the way'.

All the things described are passive indulgences, much like watching a television. One may learn certain things by doing so, but it is rarely a hands-on learning.

Whether something is a 'passive indulgence' or not has entirely to do with the fruit it bears, and very little to do with the environment in which it occurs. In other words, it really depends on the person we're talking about. It is entirely possible for a certain kind of person to become a 'fully realized' human being in an urban environment. It is also quite possible that this will happen, for some, in a rural environment where one is further away from the psychosocial clutter of civilization. It's worth noting that some people achieve this even when they are confined in a prison, mental asylum or monastery.

No matter where you are, reality is all around you. Nature doesn't begin where civilization ends. It permeates everything.

Please excuse this post if it sounds patronizing or something. I get where you're coming from, Crow. I generally lean towards rural life, actually. It's just that I don't believe in the absolute dichotomy between 'active, healthy, engaged rural living' and 'decadent, passive, self-referential urban living'. Things are rarely so neatly binary, in my experience.

I think it's kind of a bad idea. Better to just ban people if they're really causing trouble. Remember - people who check out the new site are likely to check out the forum. If they show up here and pick up on all the bitterness, interpersonal intrigue, name calling and passive aggression, any enthusiasm the front page inspired in them is likely to be soured.

The forum should probably be treated like an extension of the main blog. Bullshit should really be resolved 'behind the scenes', not in some kind of daycare 'time out' thread.